Legend’s last line won’t leave me.
Her or the club.
One day I’ll have to make that choice.
But not tonight.
Tonight, I’ll crawl back to the girl in my bed.And pray to a God I don’t believe in that she never makes me choose.
Chapter 9
Royal
The night behind Heck’s Kitchen is cold enough to bite bone.The wrestling match still roars inside the arena, but out here?
It’s just smoke, sparks, and the lull of drunken brotherhood.
A barrel fire spits and pops in the gravel lot, flames licking up into the dark like they’re trying to escape Hell itself.The Kings crowd around it.Oaks, Rye, Kernel, even old Crowbar, faces glowing orange, shadows carved deep into their jawlines.
Not one of them knows what Legend said to me ten minutes ago.
I keep my cut tight around me, the cold settling into the back of my neck, or maybe that’s just the weight of the shit I’m hiding.
Oaks sees me approach and stiffens a little.
Good.He should.
Rye nods at me, flicking a cigarette butt into the gravel.“Prez chew your ass out again?”
I open my mouth.But another brother answers.He wasn’t talking to me.
Always, I’m a ghost.
“Nah,” Crowbar rasps, missing half his teeth.“Legend saves the chewing for his ol’ lady.”
The men laugh.
Except me.
Sophie blew past Legend earlier like she was ready to stab him with her salad fork.Tension between them could crack concrete.I see the way some of the boys shift when they look at Legend, respect mixed with fear.That man’s heart is a loaded gun, and Sophie’s the only one with a finger on the trigger.
But Oaks clears his throat, eager to change the subject.“Got somethin’ better to talk about than lovebirds.Tell him what the Pearly Gates crazies been preachin’.”
Rye snorts.“You mean besides purity, obedience, and tithing your whole paycheck to that scarecrow preacher?”
“No, no,” Kernel says.“Themonsterstory.”
Crowbar throws a handful of gravel into the fire like he’s casting a spell.“Ah hell, the Demon Leaper.”
The boys howl with laughter.
But my spine goes tight.
Kernel puffs up like a campfire storyteller.“My cousin’s girl, Krystal?The one with no eyebrows and the nose ring like a bull, she swears Crowley’s people been sayin’ the Leaper’s takin’ girls to Louisville.”
“Course it’s Louisville,” Rye mutters.“If I was a demon gonna snack on virgins, that’s where I’d go.”
Another round of laughter.
